It’s against human nature to act against one’s personal comfort. Once a program that takes care of the needs of one demographic at the expense of the other is established it’s nearly impossible to curtail that program. Hence Social Security, Affirmative Action, progressive taxation, etc. A Wednesday Herald letter writer nailed the topic of baseline budgeting and how the parties twist definitions while the voter simply remains ignorant or uncaring. (“’Baseline’ cuts actually increases.”)
A cut in something no longer means less of it, only less growth in a year-to-year comparison. We “slash” Medicare if we only expand it by 5 percent instead of by the requested 10 percent. We “hacked” the HHS budget “to the bone” when we grow it at 12 percent instead of the President’s budget of 24 percent. These are illustrative examples obviously but this is the reality of our government. I can call my opponent a cold-hearted killer of the elderly if I ask for 25 percent growth and only get 10 percent. The media plays the tune and the voters sing along that the vulnerable cannot suffer.
Now you hear the president scold the evil GOP over their desire to put the elderly on the street and let the rich pocket all their “earned” income. Many of you buy this again and again. The solution is more laws, more regulation and more pandering. The loss of constitutional liberty is of no significance. If you throw more money at something, you satisfy that demographic and the dependency grows. A majority in our country believe that our schools will be perfect if we just open our checkbooks. How many examples do you need to see the fallacy in this argument? It’s a vicious cycle and until shared sacrifice really means what it means and the 51 percent can no longer vote to tax the 49 percent, we might actually make progress.
Don Thompson
Lake Stevens
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
